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I think people are not really considering what this guy is saying. He's pointing out that in the west we often sit around waxing the poetic on how we ended the Nazi threat while ignoring the heavy price that the Soviets paid. The eastern front had tied up around 4 millions German soldiers and their allies. We would of fought a far more bloody conflict if they had not been in the east.
Great, another a-hole know-it-all liberal trying to get Americans to stop being patriotic about our "flawed nation".
Those Russian armies pursuing the Germans west across the Russian Steppe were driving Jeeps, launching Katyushas from Studebaker trucks and eating Spam. Where is that little tidbit of info in this insipid article.
The Germans also forgot the maxim "Never declare a land war in Asia".
Without western supplies, the USSR would have fallen. Also, had the spectre of the US entering the war not been there, Japan would have invaded Eastern Russia. The Japanese had chosen to pursue a path of securing vital resources in the Pacific, rather than start a ground war with Russia. They had been defeated by the Russians (stalemate) in Mongolia and thier tanks were no match for the T-34s.
The Russians faced 2/3 of the German army, while the west faced 1/3. Yet without the west occupying troops in the west, tying up Japan in the east, and providing materials, the USSR would have fallen.
The Germans were already stalled before the allies entered the war. There wasn't much of a chance that was going to alter regardless if a second front opened or not.
Stalled maybe.
But without a second front to worry about, the qualitative edge Germany enjoyed could have overcome the quantitative edge that the USSR had.
Let the Soviets expend themselves in attacks, then counter-attack the now weakened forces.
The hole color of the war could have changed.
Russia wanted a second front opened up and refused to attack Japan until he had Germany contained. Then he made his land grab from the Japanese.
I think people are not really considering what this guy is saying. He's pointing out that in the west we often sit around waxing the poetic on how we ended the Nazi threat while ignoring the heavy price that the Soviets paid. The eastern front had tied up around 4 millions German soldiers and their allies. We would of fought a far more bloody conflict if they had not been in the east.
They were the only ones in the east when their alliance with Germany went bad. No doubt the Russian's paid a huge price in terms of lives and resources, but they were not entirely without guilt.
Although the Us didn't become involved until later in the war, we didn't start it, or have any role in starting it. Something Russia can't say.
The Germans were already stalled before the allies entered the war. There wasn't much of a chance that was going to alter regardless if a second front opened or not.
I don't have a problem with being reminded of the Soviet sacrifice of WW2 but with a title like: "Don’t forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler" and first paragraph statements like: "In the Western popular imagination -- particularly the American one" the author is being an a-hole.
I don't have a problem with being reminded of the Soviet sacrifice of WW2 but with a title like: "Don’t forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler" and first paragraph statements like: "In the Western popular imagination -- particularly the American one" the author is being an a-hole.
Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces.
Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces.
Excuse me for not thanking Russia for this...
That is true. However, keep in mind that 1.8 million Russians and 1.1 million Germans died at the battle of Stalingrad.
The war in the east was a "super sized" version of the war in the west.
The Red Army held off the Germans at the critical point in the war, allowing the Americans and Brits to get organized and open up a second front.
but but but..
a western Europe left to shift for itself in the 1940s would have been screwed either way – if not screwed by Hitler, then screwed by Stalin, like Poland and Czechoslovakia and all the other countries “liberated” by the Red Army.
No?
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